Page 66 of Shadowblood Souls: The Complete Series

Ten

Riva

T here’s something inexplicably satisfying about twisting half a lemon around the notched peak of a juicer. Feeling the ridges dig into the pulpy flesh against the pressure of my fingers, watching the glass base fill with pale yellow juice.

It makes me feel like I’m actually accomplishing something, which isn’t a sensation I’ve had much in the past couple of days.

Andreas watches from where he’s nursing a mug of coffee at the apartment’s small dining table. “Had a craving you couldn’t resist?” he asks in a lightly teasing tone.

I make a face at him. “I had to take advantage of the equipment while I have it. No motel is going to have a juicer. And I’ve been carrying around that bag of lemons since The Middle of Nowhere, Manitoba.”

Zian stirs at the other side of the table, where he’s been gulping down breakfast sausages—another benefit of having a proper kitchen for once. “We don’t know for sure that we’re leaving today, do we?”

His gaze slides to Jacob, who’s sitting on the sofa across from the kitchen with Engel’s laptop propped open on his knees, now connected to the apartment’s Wi-Fi. I turn toward the kettle that’s just started to whistle.

We took shifts all night keeping watch in case the big purple dude decided to encourage us to leave town more forcefully.

The guys tried to insist that I should sleep straight through until I pointed out that they weren’t going to convince me that they trust me now by refusing to let me do my bit to protect us.

But I’m not sure how much Jacob slept at all, even when it wasn’t his shift. He stayed up into the wee hours in the same pose he’s in now.

When it was my turn on watch, he made a point of going into the bedroom he’s sharing with Dominic, but I thought I heard keys clicking when I came back up to get more sleep.

As I pour the hot water into a measuring cup, he sighs. “I haven’t been able to find anything about a person—or whatever he is—named Rollick in Miami. Or the whole state of Florida either.”

“Maybe it’s time for some fresh eyes,” Andreas suggests mildly. “Dominic got pretty comfortable with that computer—he could?—”

“I know what I’ve already tried,” Jacob interrupts with an irritated edge. “And that’s just about everything.”

He shoves the laptop onto the coffee table and sinks back into the sofa cushions.

I dip a spoon into the bag of white sugar that came with the Airbnb and drop the grains into the hot water before consulting the recipe on my phone. It says that I should use two tablespoons, but I’m going for alcohol-level sour here.

I stir the one spoonful in and reach for the lemon juice. I can always add more sweetness later if I want.

“What else do we really need to know?” I say as I add the juice and fill most of the rest of the cup with cold water. “It’d be dangerous continuing to talk to shadowkind around here. The only other place we know for sure we should be able to find some is Miami.”

Dominic has just stepped into the kitchen area to pour himself some coffee from the pot Andreas brewed. He glances over at me. “We have no idea how dangerous following that one monster’s advice might be.”

I shrug. “We don’t know how dangerous anyplace might be. And… we’re pretty dangerous too. I think these ‘monsters’ can tell. Why do you think they all ran away from us?”

I don’t really like bringing up the threat we can pose, especially when I seem to be the biggest threat of all. But we can’t just sit here playing house.

Zian makes a thoughtful sound. “Even the big guy yesterday seemed kind of nervous of us.”

I pour my mixed liquids into a drinking glass I’ve already added several ice cubes to. They tinkle against the sides. Picking up the glass, I turn to face the guys.

Jacob studies me as I raise the glass to my lips. I’m not sure what he’s looking for, so I focus on the first sip of lemonade washing over my tongue.

Oh, that’s fucking good. So tart it wakes up my taste buds like a punch in the face.

Who needs coffee when you’ve got this? And I’m never drinking a cocktail again.

As I take a larger gulp, restraining a pleased shiver at the shock of sourness, Jacob rubs his mouth. “It is our only lead.”

Andreas nods. “And there’s a chance the guy was telling the truth. It’s not like shadowbloods are crashing his city so often he’d have a system set up for screwing us over.”

“I vote that we try Miami,” Dominic says quietly. “Being careful, but we would be anyway.”

Zian swallows another bite of sausage. “If you all think it’s the best idea, then I’m in.”

“All right.” Jacob grabs the laptop and stands up.

“We should get going right away then. The faster we get there, the less time there is for these shadow monsters to make their own plans if they want to screw with us after all. Everyone eat what you need to and pack up anything that isn’t packed up, and we head out in an hour. ”

Andreas throws back the last of his coffee. “I call first dibs on the shower!”

As he and Jacob head upstairs, Zian digs into his ample breakfast with even more haste. Dominic takes a long gulp of his own coffee.

I drain the rest of my lemonade, reveling in every bite of the tang, and set the glass down by the sink. There’s a grocery store danish left, cherry and cream cheese, but I’m not sure how much that appeals.

Without thinking, I stretch upward to tug open one of the higher cabinets—and pain lances from my side from my re-opened wound.

My fingers twitch. My mouth snaps shut against a gasp, my jaw clenching tight.

I slow the movement, relaxing my torso as I ease the cupboard door open. The pain quickly fades to a dull ache.

I’m okay. No big deal.

But nothing in the cupboard makes the sacrifice worthwhile. I scowl at the stacks of dishes for a moment and then grab the danish. “I’m going to get packed up.”

Dominic sets down his mug and trails behind me up the stairs. I assume he’s going to his own room to pack as well, but as I open my bedroom door, he catches me by the elbow.

The second I stop, my pulse jumping at the unexpected physical contact, he drops his hand. His hazel eyes search mine.

“When did you get hurt?”

My stance goes rigid, and I curse my carelessness downstairs. Of course Dominic would notice the signs of an injury.

“It’s fine,” I say. “I’m taking care of it. Nothing to worry about.”

His mouth tightens. “It’s not fine . We haven’t gotten into a fight since Engel’s house—that was days ago. If it’s still bothering you?—”

“I’ll deal with it. It isn’t your problem.”

A shadow of anguish crosses his face, so blatant I can’t miss it. He swallows audibly and then tips his head toward the room behind me.

“Can we talk—just the two of us?”

I could be a brat and point out that it’s just the two of us right now, but we both know that the other guys could walk into the hall at any moment. With those sharp ears of his, Zian might even be able to pick up on this conversation from downstairs if he tried.

If Dominic had demanded rather than asking, I’d have said no regardless of that fact. But the agony in his expression has left my gut all twisted up.

I step into the room without speaking and prop myself against the wall a few feet inside, my arms crossing over my chest.

Dominic follows cautiously. He nudges the door shut behind him and stays poised in front of it, his posture awkwardly stiff.

“I’m sorry,” he blurts out in a tone much rougher than his usual measured voice. “I can’t remember if I’ve ever said it this clearly before—I should have. I’m sorry I made you feel like healing you was a problem.”

I glance at the lumps vaguely visible under the shoulders of the new trench coat Andreas picked up for him—so that when he’s only around us, he can cover up with something lighter than the parka. “It is a problem, though, isn’t it? Every time you use your power, they grow.”

“That doesn’t fucking matter. Making sure you’re okay matters a hell of a lot more.”

He pauses and swipes his hand over his face.

“I messed up before. A lot. I know that, and you have no idea how sorry I am for everything. I should never have let Jake do his trick with the poison in the first place—I should have figured out that the guardians lied. You never gave us any reason not to trust you.”

My response bubbles from my throat with a sourness that’s less pleasant than my lemonade. “You still don’t trust me.”

Dominic goes even more rigid than he was before. “What do you mean?”

I might as well spit it out now.

“You’re scared of me because of what I did at Engel’s house. I saw how you looked at me—and on the train, you were worried about me controlling that power. I’ve noticed you flinch like you think I’m suddenly going to scream at you.”

Dominic closes his eyes for a second. His jaw works. When he looks at me again, his eyes have darkened so much they make my chest ache.

“That’s not because of you either,” he says, and taps the side of his head. “I know up here that you’d never hurt me. It was just that seeing you destroying all those people like that… it reminded me of the worst parts of my power. It isn’t your fault. That’s my damage to deal with.”

I frown. “What do you mean? You only hurt things when you have to so that you have the energy to heal someone.”

His head droops. “No. It seems like my extra limbs added another new dimension to my original powers. The guardians forced me to test it out plenty of times.”

There’s no mistaking the bitterness in his tone. My body tenses up with instinctive defensiveness.

In so many ways, they hurt my guys. Does it ever fucking end?

“What did they do?” I ask with a vibration of the caustic energy inside me that for once I don’t even totally mind.

Dominic’s voice drops even lower than before. “I can steal the life out of things even if there’s nothing to heal. And it’s the most incredible feeling…”

His expression contorts with revulsion—at himself, nothing to do with me.